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Soup Stock

A clear beef stock made by simmering shin, bones, and vegetables for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Soup Stock

Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Soup Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wipe the meat with a clean towel and cut all the meat from the bones.

  2. Place the bones in a large soup kettle, lay the meat on top, and add the cold water.

  3. Stand the kettle on the back of the stove for 1 hour.

Simmer

  1. Move it to a high heat.

  2. After 30 minutes, skim off the scum that forms on the surface as the water steams.

  3. Reduce the heat to medium.

  4. Add 1 cup of cold water.

  5. Skim off any remaining scum.

  6. Cover the kettle.

  7. Let it simmer (do not boil) for 4 hours.

  8. Add the chopped vegetables.

  9. Simmer for an additional hour.

Finish and cool

  1. Strain the stock through a sieve.

  2. Add salt.

  3. Cool it in a cool place.

  4. Once cold, remove the grease from the surface.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Beef shin
Gives the stock its meaty flavour and body as it simmers.
Beef bones
Release gelatin and savoury flavour into the water during long simmering.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aroma as it cooks into the broth.
Carrot
Adds natural sweetness and aroma to the broth.

The step that matters

Simmer without boiling. A gentle simmer keeps the stock clear and limits fat and impurities being emulsified into the liquid. A rolling boil makes it cloudy and greasy.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, carrot, turnip, parsley, celery):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, carrot, turnip, parsley, celery. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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